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McLaren made a return to the top of the time sheet in the first practice session for Sunday’s Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.  Thanks to a new ‘interim’ diffuser that McLaren have bolted onto Lewis Hamilton’s car, the reigning World Champion set the fastest time in first practice with team mate Heikki Kovalainen (running the old diffuser) fourth and the two Brawn GP cars sandwiched in between.

Hamilton couldn’t carry the pace through to the second session, though, where Button finished fastest ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Williams with Barrichello third fastest.  Even without fancy diffusers, the two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were fourth and fifth.

Here are the times from the first two practice sessions:

First Practice

Second Practice

Image: McLaren

Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota are free to continue using their controversial double-decker diffusers after the FIA International Court of Appeal decided to deny the appeals of Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault.

The legality of the diffusers had been challenged at the Australian Grand Prix in March but the race stewards declared them legal at the time.

Since then, it has been uncertain whether the results of the first two Grands Prix would stand but Wednesday’s ruling means Jenson Button will keep his wins and Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams will keep their constructors points.

In a statement issued by the FIA, the International Court of Appeal said:

The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.

It will be interesting to see the full reasons ‘in due course’ but whatever they are this is a good decision by the FIA.  The worst outcome would have been the stripping of points from the first two races, something that with recent events I wouldn’t have been surprised to see.  Instead, the FIA have agreed with the race stewards (and Max Mosley, and Charlie Whiting) and rewarded those teams that were clever enough to find and exploit a loophole in the rules.

Now it is up to the other teams to develop their own double-decker diffusers (at not insignificant cost) and for the ‘diffuser three’ to make the most of their temporary advantage.  No doubt all the teams have at least started work on new diffusers and Renault may even be in a position to run one in Shanghai this weekend.

Jenson Button will be hoping for a hat trick on Sunday but as soon as BMW and Red Bull get their diffusers fitted he won’t find things so easy.

The last Chinese Grand Prix was only six months ago but thanks to a change in the 2009 schedule F1 returns to Shanghai this weekend and it is time for round 3 of the f1buzz prediction game.

Like Sepang, the Shanghai International Circuit is a modern, smooth track designed by Hermann Tilke.  The unique first corner with its constantly tightening radius can be hard on tyres so, as in Australia, tyres could be critical.

KERS will play a role, too.  The first two races showed that KERS is as useful for defending a position as it is for overtaking so if Renault, Ferrari or McLaren can get in front they could be hard to pass.

But the favourites are still likely to be the ‘diffuser’ teams that dominated the first two races.  Brawn GP will be hoping to make it a hat trick in China but Red Bull and BMW won’t make it easy for them.

The other big question mark that is looming over Brawn, Toyota and Williams is the outcome of the FIA Court of Appeal proceedings into the legality of the controversial diffusers the three teams are running.  The decision is expected on Wednesday afternoon so you might want to hold your predictions until then.  Of course, the deadline for predictions is qualifying on Saturday so there is plenty of time!

To enter, leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Here is the full list of drivers names.

Good luck!

With the Chinese Grand Prix just days away, here is a video of a Chinese Formula One car made entirely from scrap metal.  According to Jalopnik, this is the fourth of these replicas built by the Zhao brothers and it is capable of hitting 100mph.  Whether you would want to drive something made from scrap while sitting on a folding chair at 100mph on the streets of China is debatable but you have to admit the end result looks pretty damn cool.  Some might say it even looks better than some of the new 2009 F1 cars.

The video shows the adjustable rear wing and extensive ‘wind tunnel’ testing of the chassis.  A number of ‘things’ are also highlighted with red circles but as my Chinese is non-existent I have no idea what they are.

Bernie Ecclestone has had a lot of criticism over his efforts to take Formula One to new markets in Asia and the Middle East but I think it’s pretty clear from this video that there are at least four guys in China who will be watching the race on Sunday.

At the end of last year the FIA published a number of changes to the Formula One stewarding process to try to improve the consistency and openness of the stewards’ decisions.  I think you would have to admit that despite these changes they haven’t really made much progress.

In 2008 Lewis Hamilton was stripped of his win in the Belgian Grand Prix after the stewards decided he had gained an advantage by cutting the chicane when passing Kimi Raikkonen.  At the time, Niki Lauda called it “the worst judgment in the history of Formula One”and Sir Jackie Stewart was (as usual) outspoken in his criticism of the FIA.

The stewards made a mistake in Spa and so had to invent a new rule saying a driver must wait until the second corner before repassing after giving a position back.

Now, in the very first race of the 2009 season, we have the results of a race being changed after it has finished.  Twice.  Again, because of a failure of the stewards.  Ironically, it probably only happened because  McLaren were paranoid about receiving a penalty.  If you look at what actually happened on track, the drivers didn’t do anything wrong.  Hamilton passed Trulli perfectly legally and when Hamilton was ordered to let Trulli past there was nothing the Toyota driver could have done differently.

Sir Jackie Stewart has again spoken out against the unprofessional stewarding that has led to the sacking of one McLaren employee and as yet unknown further sanctions against the team when McLaren appear before the World Motor Sport Council later this month.  The triple World Champion said the whole thing could have been avoided if race control had been better organised and responded to McLaren’s requests for clarification at the time:

It seems strange that only one person has the authority to deal with these inquiries which could be result-changing in a multi-million pound sport.  As it is, we now have a potentially serious state of affairs for McLaren.

Sir Jackie’s right.  What Hamilton and Ryan did after the race was wrong but it could all have been avoided with better stewarding.